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Topic: Harvesting yeast (Read 1389 times)

Want to start re using yeast. What I want to know is if I make a brown ale and harvest the yeast, should I only reuse the yeast from that beer for a similar style? Thanks just got into home brewing at the beginning of the year

Want to start re using yeast. What I want to know is if I make a brown ale and harvest the yeast, should I only reuse the yeast from that beer for a similar style? Thanks just got into home brewing at the beginning of the year

Nope, you can use it for any style where that's an appropriate yeast. For example, you could use the yeast from the brown to make a pale ale.

I think you're good to go reusing for any beer that the yeast variety is good in. My only personal precaution is to not reuse from high gravity. Obviously if you had an infected batch you wouldn't reuse too.

In general, you should not have a problem going from one style to another when repitching. I have never tried it myself, but it has been suggested that if you go from a very dark/roasty beer to a very light one (i.e., a stout to a blonde) you might notice some carryover. I think a brown ale should be fine going to just about any style.

+1! I make a starter 500ml larger than the size starter I need. If I need a 2L starter, I'll make a 2.5L starter and pour all but 500ml. Set that extra 500ml in the fridge to let settle. Take a mason jar with 1/4 - 1/2 filled w/ water and microwave for 2 minutes to sanitize the water and jar. Put a sanitized lid on the jar and let cool in the fridge. Then take the extra starter, pour out most of the liquid and leave just enough to mix up the yeast on the bottom and pour into the mason jar and put into the fridge. Next time I need the yeast, I make another starter and make it 500ml more and repeat the process. Clean yeast every time and much easier than washing yeast from a carboy.

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Jeremy Baker

"An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You should never see an Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order sign, just Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience." - Mitch Hedberg

+1! I make a starter 500ml larger than the size starter I need. If I need a 2L starter, I'll make a 2.5L starter and pour all but 500ml. Set that extra 500ml in the fridge to let settle. Take a mason jar with 1/4 - 1/2 filled w/ water and microwave for 2 minutes to sanitize the water and jar. Put a sanitized lid on the jar and let cool in the fridge. Then take the extra starter, pour out most of the liquid and leave just enough to mix up the yeast on the bottom and pour into the mason jar and put into the fridge. Next time I need the yeast, I make another starter and make it 500ml more and repeat the process. Clean yeast every time and much easier than washing yeast from a carboy.

Take it one step further and make one big (5 liter?) starter when you get some new yeast. decant and pitch an appropriate volume of slurry and save the rest as you describe, now make a starter from a dollop of that each time you need one and you've got a clean 1st generation population to propagate from.